Aftermarket Parts & Warranty Problems

If you added after market parts and you have a serious issue like for instance your turbo goes out. You can kiss your warranty good buy. And no, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act won't apply. Please add comments. I'm dying to know if anyone had past experiences, and the outcome of them.

Comments

Makes sense to me. The manufacture built the car to certain specifications and will warranty the car under those specifications. If I alter what the Manufacture agreed to cover then it is no ones fault but my own.

Now I have seen where they will honor the warranty if the alteration has nothing to do with whats broke. I.E, I put a aftermarket stereo in and the Transmission goes out, one has nothing to do with the other and the transmission is covered. But if that aftermarket radio screws up the electrical system then it is not covered.

We had a guy blow an engine on a Ford Lightning one time because he put NOS on it. he tried to take off the NOS and cover the hole with tape thinking the tech would not see it. He then raised heck because we denied his Warranty. All he did was waste a bunch of money on a lawyer on that one

Try putting gasoline in a diesel engine-Warranty doesn't cover the damage from that, either. Warranty is for manufacturer defects. If your turbo croaked because of a part you installed, it's on your head. Chrysler didn't cause the malfunction. A vehicle is built with a certain set of electronic and mechanical parameters. If you go jimmying around with it (by installing aftermarket bits and bobs), you risk voiding the warranty.

We just had the opposite happen a few weeks ago. A customer filled up a Expedition with Diesel Fuel. That was a $1600 mistake on her part. I have been checking out Diesel nozzles every since and I don't know how she did it.

How in the world?? That would take some serious, er, concentration. :sick:

We've had a couple of cases of 'I asked my girlfriend to put gas in the truck-and she did!' in the last couple of years. Most folks around here (farming country) are old hands with assorted fuels and know which goes where.

Today I took my '07 Scion tC to the shop for an oil change. Due to high mileage; I decided on three months not every 5,000. Car runs fine. Maintenance light goes on; I turn it off (They didn't like that too much. Too bad! Cause I'm not changing the oil every month. ) I have TRD aftermarket parts like Cold Air Intake, Sport muffler, front strut tie bar; I think I put in least 1,700 just for parts alone.

The service department was rude and high pressuring me to do 500.00 Maintenance check. I said "No" cause I have my car payment soon. They said "If you don't do 5,000 mile oil changes. You could clog your engine and it would cost you 15,000 to replace (I knew that was a lie)" and they also tried selling me new tires cause I didn't rotate them... Real reason is my stock tires don't last more than 30,000 no matter what; Everyone who owns a tC has major tire wear within 20,000-30,000 miles.

I just think they were so upset cause I spent 1,700's on the parts and installed everything on my own else except the muffler. I think they would make somewhere between 800-900 for installation alone.

Does toyota cover your warranty with TRD parts installed by someone other than a dealer? Last I heard you need to have TRD parts installed at a dealer in order to keep your warranty intact (for items effected by the parts).

If you don't do 5,000 mile oil changes. You could clog your engine and it would cost you 15,000 to replace (I knew that was a lie)" and they also tried selling me new tires cause I didn't rotate them

Andeet, just curious where the lie or the misinformation is?

You do need to change your oil every 5K at least or it can void your warranty, damage your engine and could cost up to $15K to replace it. A 5K service (oil change and tire rotation) is about $45 bucks tops, and money well spent.Especially seeing you are dumping all this money into the truck set $20 aside and at least change your oil. if not you will be here on the site in 30K miles bitching about how the crappy service department voided your warranty and how you always did your maintanence.

The service department had the tech come to me and state it. He said "You need to take better of your car...blah, blah." They were upset I knew the tech trick to turn off the "maintenance light" cause they said if the "maintenance Light" was on for three months and I replied "No; cause I know how to turn it off." Another thing; they told me this..."You have to take care of your maintenance cause it will also hurt the clutch" so when Automatic's all sudden have clutches????

Three things:1: Stock tires are very crappy even brand new... and my secret plan is to buy extreme summer performance tires sometime next month. And buy steel or cheap alloy wheels with winter tires. They actually gave me estimate for tires: all 1,800 dollars of it. I can go to tire shop in Illinois and get a all season set for 500.00 bucks.

2: I drive so much if I did the 5,000 oil changes; I will get oil changes every month. Waste of money since it's fact oil today is much better than few years ago and can be streched out. My Dad works outside of Chicago; he puts least 75-80 miles one way. He never changes his oil change at every 3,000 miles like GMC recommends and its fine. My car wasn't acting odd, didn't lose MPG.

3: I'm starting to notice the Carmax here at the service department is bunch of money hungry aholes. They weren't helpful, and unprofessional therefore I will use my connections (Buddy of mine at work; works part time at high performance shop and his little brother happens to be Toyota tech) at another Toyota dealership in Illinois. Let them be the only ones touching my car for now on. And they will know about this when Carmax's service department surveys me. I straight out told them I couldn't pay 30k check up cause I had my car payment: which I think it's much important and also I'm not even at 30k mark yet.

Personally, I think they are just upset since I didn't allow them to install my extra TRD accessories cause they would made a killing so they are trying to get the money in another way. I also believe they think I also do street racing due to having Cold Air Intake; that's not true. If they void my warranty...oh well, I have 7,000 more miles until manufacturer's warranty ends. I can finally buy my exhaust headers and start stashing money away for those rainy days. Probably didn't help the fact that I am early 20's female and they were trying to sell me B.S. and I wasn't buying it.

To each his/her own. It is none of my business how you care for your car. Just for your sake I hope you rethink the oil changes. That is vital to the longevity of your car, especially if you are putting 60K a year on it.

The manufacturer cannot deny a valid warranty claim unless they can show that an aftermarket part caused the failure.

Examples:

You put enormous wheels on your SUV. You then start to eat wheel bearings or quickly wear out tie rods. That's not the manufacturer's fault.

You turbocharge or supercharge your car, you can expect the engine, clutch, flywheel, trans, driveshaft, diff, axle shafts, etc to all be denied coverage as ALL of those components will be heavily stressed by the additional torque. Now, if your power window breaks, that's not caused by the turbocharger, that should be covered.

Cause I work nights and lose track when I need to do oil changes since I turned off the "oil change light." I always think its the "Check engine" light when I drive in the middle of the night. Also at the time; I personally thought the dealer should only do the oil changes and they usually can't make appointments until four to five days.

Everything is back on track with the oil changes but still working on the maintenance. Kind of hard when dealerships charge over 500 bucks for 30k and I need the 370 for the month's car payment.

Don't lecture me about "Total Cost of Ownership" cause I already know. It's just I'm starting to pay rent for a apartment that I didn't even live in while buying my car back in November. But hopefully something will come up and back me back on track.